Wooden stud walls, comprising a horizontal sole plate and a horizontal top plate separated by a plurality of spaced vertical studs, are common components of most residential homes. The generally rectangular structure is inherently easily distortable when forces are applied in the plane of the wall at any angle to the vertical studs. Triangular structures are well known to be inherently rigid and not distortable, and accordingly, the employment of a diagonal bracing to stiffen a rectangular stud wall is also well known. The difficulty with applying a diagonal bracing to a stud wall is that the bracing must not interfere with the subsequent fastening of siding, wallboard, insulation, or the like to the stud wall. The attachment of a diagonal plank to a stud wall is, therefore, not feasible because it would interfere with the smooth subsequent placement of siding, wall board, or the like. The internal attachment of a diagonal brace (not projecting beyond the two faces of the stud wall) is much too time consuming and expensive to be commercially acceptable. One solution to this problem has been the use of a thin flat metal strap as a brace since its thinness does not obstruct the subsequent attachment of siding, wallboard, or the like. An improvement on such a bracing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,698 to Rogers wherein the bracing strap is bent over and nailed to the top surface of the top plate and also bent over and nailed to the bottom surface of the sole plate. This arrangement provides a much stronger structure than merely the flat brace nailed only to one face of the stud wall. While this arrangement is stronger than its predecessor arrangement, it still does not provide all of the strength that is readily available by such a bracing.
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel bracing for wooden stud walls. It is another object of this invention to provide an improved attachment to provide extra strength to a braced stud wall. Still other objects will be apparent from the detailed description which follows.